Many ornamental ponds and fish ponds are constructed with in-ground mechanical plumbing systems to circulate and clean the pond water. Such systems may include, at a minimum, a pump fed filtering system with floor pipe plumbing and a floor or basin drain. However, many ponds are made without expensive built-in plumbing, and for those ponds some kind of retro-fit filtration system may be employed. Such systems are of three general kinds, including mechanical, biological, and chemical. The present invention comprises a mechanical filtration system for after-construction installation in ornamental and fish ponds.
Pond filters are known, as evidenced by the following exemplary patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,447,675, which teaches a mechanical system for filtering and treating waste generated or collected in the water of a fish pond. The system includes a pump, pre-filter, piping, a valve assembly, and a filter media container enclosing discrete filter media, which are hollow, plastic structures with a external ribs and internal dividing walls. The filter media has a high surface area-to-volume ratio and can support a high volumetric density of naturally occurring heterotrophic bacteria. The heterotrophic bacteria establish colonies on the internal and external surfaces of the filter media and biologically metabolize waste that is trapped on the media. The bacterial metabolization transforms much of the waste to an aesthetically and biologically neutral form thereby reducing the need for chemical treatment of the pond water. The system includes a backwashing mode to agitate and remove unreacted waste from the system and direct the waste stream out of the system, preferably to be used as fertilizer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,039, to Colburn, teaches an aerobic bacteria filtration apparatus for aquatic ponds. It includes a cylindrical tube that houses a plasticized media derived from horse hair or hog hair. The media is suitable for supporting the growth of colonies of aerobic bacteria. Water is drawn into an intake port at one end of the tube and then across the plasticized media by submersible pump coupled to the other end of the tube. The aerobic bacteria digests and degrades waste products suspended in the water as it is drawn across the plasticized media, and the cleansed water is discharged into the aquatic pond.
The foregoing patents and prior art device reflects the current state of the art of which the present inventor is aware. Reference to, and discussion of, this patent is intended to aid in discharging Applicant's acknowledged duty of candor in disclosing information that may be relevant to the examination of claims to the present invention. However, it is respectfully submitted that the above-indicated patent does not disclose, teach, suggest, show, or otherwise render obvious, either singly or when considered in combination with other prior art devices, the invention described herein.